Crowned in Black: Chapter 27

Karalti read my mind: she burst out into the thin, frigid air of the mountains near Lahati's Tomb, cutting a day's travel off our journey to Boros. I brought the map up as my dragon wheeled above the ragged volcanic peaks, already covered in snow, and triangulated our route to the city. It was a fast thirty-minute flight direct from our position, a descent of about five thousand feet.

"So the Boros watchtower isn't actually in Boros," I thought to Karalti, leaning with her as the cooling saddle creaked under my knees. "It's in the mouth of Krivan Pass, where the fleet was spotted. Let's go straight there and see if we can scout it from altitude."

"Yep! Gonna see what we can see!" Karalti fearlessly adjusted her course east, steadily burning her stamina to rocket through the clear air toward the distant pass. “If it is Janos, what do you wanna do about it?”

“Depends what ships he’s brought with him, and how many of them there are. If the messenger was exaggerating and it’s a scouting party or something…”

“Then you’ll let me burninate the countryside?” Karalti asked coyly.

“Yeah. And all the peoples in their thatched roof cottages. By which I mean airships.”

A tense twenty minutes later, we spotted the fleet. From twelve thousand feet up and a mile away, the collection of airships still looked almost as impressive as it had when we'd flown directly under the 1st and 2nd Royal Fleets in Taltos. The ships were toy-sized from here, but they drifted toward my lands in orderly, disciplined formation - and there were a lot of them. In the lead was an enormous crossbow-shaped Sarkany-class dreadnought, humming through the air like a three-hundred foot long hammerhead shark. It was followed by a flotilla of dark-hulled destroyers, which were in turn flanked by smaller striker-class ships and a cloud of dragoons. Behind the warships were the cargo and troop haulers that supplied the army: hundreds of them. All up, I was guessing there were close to five hundred airships and twenty or thirty thousand souls headed straight for the tall black mountains that ringed Myszno.

“Ooh boy.” Karalti winced telepathically. “That’s… a lot of ships. And a lot of boom-boom. What are we gonna do?”

“I’m kind of leaning towards pissing myself and running around in circles, but…” I triggered one of my Mark of Matir abilities, Spider Climb, and clung onto the saddle in a Spiderman crouch while I peered at the distant fleet. “Wait. If this was Janos, why would they be directly flying into this pass? He would have had to have flown the fleet AROUND the mountains. If he was going to attack any pass, he'd want to attack Vastil Pass, not Krivan."

"No one ever said the guy who wore his funny cult pin to his first big speech as regent was a strategic genius," Karalti remarked.

Myszno only had two entries below eight thousand feet: Vastil Pass to the west, the main gateway between Myszno and the rest of Vlachia, and Krivan Pass, which connected the sparsely populated Sathbar Plains to the northern tippy-top of Myszno. Both passes were heavily defended, but of the two, Vastil was the softer target.

"I mean… you’re right, but Janos flying only one fleet ships into here would be an incredibly stupid move. He would have to be arrogant beyond belief to think that one fleet could take on the entirety of Myszno, and besides... if he was going to hit a city here, why Boros? Why not Litvy, where we produce our airships? Surely he'd want to capture that first?" I felt a little thrill pass through my gut as another option occurred to me. From our position, I couldn't properly see any flags the ships were flying, but... "Let's skim them and you let your queensong go."

"My queensong?" Karalti pulled into a shallow dive, her wings snapping taut.

"Yeah." I swallowed as my ears popped, and bent back down to the saddle. "Because if they're our enemies, then your song will knock them flat. But if they're not..."

"OH! Wait: you think this is the 4th Fleet!?"

I weaved my head, narrowed my eyes, then flared them to zoom in as far as my vision allowed... and still couldn't make out any details. “Mmmmaaaybe?”

Karalti could dive at insane speeds: 180 miles per hour or more, though we coasted along at a breezy 90 as we tore toward the fleet. She cut around behind to avoid the Dreadnought and its anti-magic field: half a mile away, I could see that every ship was flying the royal black-and-scarlet flag alongside a white pennant, and my heart lifted. We closed in from the flank, close enough that I could see airshipmen buzzing around the decks. The fleet dwarfed us now, but as Karalti yawed hard, her booming queensong rolling through the air, not a single man fell retching or shaking to the decks. Instead, cheers went up, and the ships began to blare their horns.

"It IS the 4th!" I shouted. My voice didn't pierce the noise, but it was for my benefit, not anyone else's. “Fucking hell yeah, dude!”

"They're signaling us from the front of the fleet!" I felt a tug through the Bond, which drove me to look up and toward what Karalti had spotted - a flash of light off a mirror as the sailors on board the Sarkany-class tilted it in our direction, inviting us to land.

"Head for them, Tidbit. I think we're good." I opened the KMS, clinging to her back as she tilted back level, and dismissed some alerts before I messaged Suri: "Looks like it's the 4th Fleet rolling in: friendlies. Will update shortly."

Sailors, soldiers, specialists and dragoons on the decks of the flanking destroyers crowded the rails, waving and saluting to us as Karalti flicked her tail and backwinged, closing in on the rear deck of the dreadnought - the Metternich. I was relieved to see a crowd of Knights of the Red Star forming on the deck, with Ur Gehlan at the head. He was flanked by a man I recognized as Timofey Lostra, the new fleet commander of the 4th after the death of Admiral Robert Gehlan – older brother of the knight - who'd fought, served and died in Myszno fighting the Demon. There were several other royal officers around him, all of them looking tired and scrappy.

Karalti trilled a greeting to them as she touched down, staggering forward a few steps with the ship's momentum. I let the motion pitch me forward over her shoulder, sliding over it, briefly vanishing, then appearing on the ground. It was sunny up here, so I didn't unequip my helmet or raise my visor.

"Your Holiness! My Prince! What a sight for sore eyes!" Ur Gehlan looked tired and drawn, but he went to one knee and swept into a bow... as did all the other officers behind him.

Oh boy. I was glad I was wearing my helmet, because I was pretty sure my face turned the color of a cherry, dhampirism or no dhampirism. "Uhh... thanks. No kneeling, thanks. It's good to see you, Ur Gehland. Admiral Lostra. I was hoping you guys would make your way here, but I wasn't expecting it. And I'm sorry about Wingleader Vasoly."

As I said that, the crowd parted... and the small, stiff-backed commander of the 32nd Dragoons marched out to stand in front of me and bow.

"I'm sorry about me too.” Vasoly’s wavy black hair had been shorn to stubble, and he had a slightly wild look in his eye and rope scars around his neck… but his smile was wry as he clapped Ur Gehlen on the arm. "Or I would have been, if not for these idiots. They rescued me out of the staking yard before I could be impaled. Swung down from a zipline off the fortress walls and snatched me off like a blushing maiden. Dumbest thing I’ve ever seen a man do."

“Talk about an entry,” I laughed. “That’s some swashbuckling outlaw shit right there.”

"Ahem. Yes, and we are, in fact, all technically outlaws now." Ur Gehlan cleared his throat, cheeks flushing. "The entire 4th Fleet, and five score Knights of the Red Star, deserters all. But I will bear the dishonor if it means serving our true king and his chosen heir! We shall not serve a petty limp-wristed tyrant, especially one who has so egregiously betrayed his nation.

Vasoly grunted his agreement. “Every man save for a handful decided that we would seek Ignas ourselves.”

"Indeed. And given his Majesty proclaimed you his heir throughout the land, we thought it prudent to report to Myszno at full speed." Admiral Lostra was a tall, fit, sharp-eyed man, and every inch the officer: uniform immaculate, hair slicked back, with a confident, wolfish air about him. "We sailed to swear the Fleet to you in defense of Vlachia and His Majesty, should he live."

"He does live." I offered the Admiral a hand. "And I'd be honored."

Lostra had a firm, dry shake, and at the confirmation, cheers went up around the main deck. I got a KMS alert, and when I saw it, I smiled.

[You have gained the allegiance of the Royal Black Army 4th Fleet.]

[You are developing a custom military structure for your territory. Tutorials for how to convert one unit type to another are available in the Mass Combat menu of your Kingdom Management System.]

"Superb." I sighed with relief. "We were wondering if Janos had pulled a fast one on us and was starting an invasion."

"Not today. But not far from today, either." Admiral Lostra's thin mouth sloped in a grimace. "We not only came to swear allegiance to the true crown, but to warn you of the actions of the false. No sooner had you left the capitol than Janos Lanz began quietly massing troops in Czongrad, intending to invade Myszno by stealth. Not only that, but my cousin - who lives in Szerga and serves in the garrison there - sent a letter to me warning that Dakhari ships are billeting not far from the city, in a secluded valley beyond the city walls. He is not sure if they are the Sultir's ships or not, but regardless of whether he solicited aid from Khemmemu, hired desert pirates, or both, it spells bad news for Vlachia unless it is stopped."

"That rat bastard," I muttered. "So he WAS in cahoots with Dakhdir. And the Sultir is a fucking nutcase."

"Do you think Violetta orchestrated it all?" Karalti finally spoke up, having listened in for a time.

"I don't know. Can’t rule it out." I pushed my visor up to be able to look Lostra in the eye. "Did your cousin give any information on the size of the force Janos is putting together?"

"No specifics, only that it is large," the admiral replied.

I checked my map. Serga was about two days flight away, the capital of Czongrad – the next province over to our west. "In all likelihood, he plans to try and take Vastil Pass by force, which means his target is Litvy. He knows that the Prezyemi Line was destroyed in the war with the Demon, and that marching an army by foot through the Endlar is almost impossible." I rubbed my mouth with a hand, thinking rapidly. "So if I were Janos... I'd think to overwhelm by air, seize the airship manufactory at the College of Engineers... and... fuck. FUCK."

"What?" Karalti asked.

"And the Warsingers," I finished grimly. "He's angling to seize the fucking Warsingers. And I have a feeling we know who ordered THAT move."